Mickey Brown and other members of the Parkway Condominium Board of Directors lost three court cases last week -- and then lost their positions on the board.
Sources said Parkway superintendent Judith Dale may be placed on administrative leave pending a forensic audit of the posh condo's books by an independent auditing firm.
It was a stunning reversal of fortune for the once high-flying Brown and Dale, who Parkway owners said heretofore operated the building as though they owned it.
"I think, for once around here, the good guys won," said condo owner Muriel White, who helped organize the effort to oust the board.
Still outstanding are a pair of lawsuits, one filed by condominium owner Henry Borgese against Dale, Brown and other members of the board, and the second filed by Dale against Borgese and White. Additional lawsuits have been threatened and a criminal investigation seems likely.
A raucous owners' meeting that lasted until after midnight on Thursday was almost surreal, said several of those in attendance. Two off-duty Erie County Sheriff's deputies, dressed in plain clothes and armed with automatic pistols, showed up, but refused repeated requests from tenants to say who had hired them.
"I've been a lawyer in Niagara Falls for a long time, and this was one of the craziest proceedings I've ever been witness to," said condo owner Joe Carosella, who also sought the board's ouster. "There were any number of pretty feeble attempts by them trying to maintain their control."
The meeting followed a ruling by state Supreme Court Justice Richard Kloch that allowed for the use of proxy ballots collected by Parkway owners seeking to get rid of Dale and the board. Kloch also appointed a hearing officer -- prominent Buffalo attorney Thomas Elmer -- to oversee the balloting process.
Sources attending the closed meeting told the Reporter Elmer repeatedly overruled the board's attempts to have proxy ballots thrown out. At one point, after some elderly residents complained that Dale was trying to intimidate them into voting in favor of the board's retention, Elmer asked her to leave the room.
In a bit of comic relief, Dale was heard to say she would sue local attorney John Bartolomei -- who attended the meeting representing his condo-owner son -- because he owns the Niagara Falls Reporter, which first broke the story of problems at the Parkway back in February.
Reporter Publisher Bruce Battaglia said Dale should get her facts straight.
"I've known John for a lot of years and consider him a friend, but we're definitely not in business together," Battaglia said. For the record, John Bartolomei is not and has never been an investor in or owner of the Reporter.
When the votes were finally tallied, the old board, consisting of Mickey Brown, Orlando Marra, John Bonghi, William Fox, Jacqueline Falsetti, Elizabeth Pfleger and John DeLeo, was given the boot by a margin of 78-40.
A second vote was taken as the witching hour approached and a new board, consisting of Bryant Kurtzman, Octavio Rosini, Betty Babanoury, Muriel White, Joe Carosella, Jonathan Schultz and Steve Johnson, was installed.
The next morning, Friday, attorneys representing the former board appealed the results of the election to Justice Kloch. After hearing testimony from both sides in the case, Kloch dismissed the appeal and upheld the election result.
Sources close to the situation said that the results of the upcoming audit would likely be turned over to state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, whose office has jurisdiction over condominium financial matters.
Meanwhile, Parkway residents are wondering why they were charged over $800,000 for a window replacement project they were originally told they weren't going to have to pay for, how a six-figure budget surplus tuned into a budget deficit seemingly overnight, and why Judith Dale received a $10,000 performance bonus late last year when a clear majority of condo owners thought she should be terminated.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 6 2004 |